PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Jan 4

Reuters Staff

3 Min Read

Jan 4 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* Investors are jumping out of mutual funds managed by professional stock pickers and shifting money into lower-cost funds that echo the broader market. Through November, investors pulled $119.3 billion from so-called actively managed U.S. stock funds in 2012, the biggest yearly outflow since 2008, according to data from research firm Morningstar. ()

* U.S. antitrust regulators who spent nearly two years probing Google Inc’s business practices came up virtually empty-handed, preserving the company’s dominant Web-search business and dealing a blow to competitors such as Microsoft Corp. ()

* Offshore driller Transocean Ltd will pay $1.4 billion to settle all federal civil and criminal claims relating to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Department of Justice said. ()

* Cautious U.S. consumers restrained their spending in December, making for a disappointing holiday season for retailers at what is usually their busiest time of the year. ()

* The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has wrapped up its investigation into possible insider trading by a former top executive at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc and has decided not to take action, the executive’s lawyer said Thursday. ()

* Wegelin & Co, Switzerland’s oldest bank pleaded guilty to a criminal conspiracy charge in the United States on Thursday and admitted that it helped wealthy Americans for years avoid tens of millions of dollars in taxes by hiding their income from secret accounts abroad. ()

* Boeing Co said Thursday that it delivered 601 commercial jets last year, likely topping rival Airbus to become the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer for the first time since 2002. ()

* U.S. auto sales finished the year strong as consumers largely ignored the debate over the fiscal cliff in Washington, D.C., and headed to dealers to replace aging vehicles. ()

* Hormel Foods Corp agreed to pay about $700 million for Unilever’s Skippy peanut-butter business, seeking to expand its lunchtime offerings in the U.S. and accelerate growth in China. ()